Today Melinda and I had our very important meetings at the Office Français de l’Immigration et de l’Intégration (OFII). This is the meeting in which we are either officially granted permission to stay in France or are told to get lost. We had to prepare several things in advance of the meeting and then submit to a physical and an interview during it. Part of the physical included a chest x-ray, which we were given (and told to hang on to) at the end of the exam. To sum it all up quickly, we passed! They like us, they really like us (isn’t that what Sally Field said at that award show so long ago?)!

An interesting part of this meeting is that it’s very expensive, 340 Euros per person (almost $500) and one pays in stamps. That part literally cracked us up. Stamps? Really? Does the French government have some really big package that needs to be sent somewhere? Anyway, Christine helped us out with that one, taking Melinda to the nearby store (the Tabac) at which one buys hundreds of Euros in stamps. And, no, they come in bigger denominations than having to buy dozens of First Class stamps.

We celebrated afterwards by reviewing our chest x-rays and then going out to lunch. It turned out to be a great day for pictures (including x-rays). I got quite a few shots for potential future blog postings, including one I plan to use tomorrow involving the Ramones. Stay tuned.